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><A
NAME="AEN48"
>Tinkering with the development process</A
></H1
><P
>Having decided to start work on Perl 6, the first issue addressed was
how to improve the development process.  An examination of the existing
process will underline why this was considered necessary.</P
><DIV
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><H2
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><A
NAME="AEN51"
>How it used to be (and still is, for Perl 5)</A
></H2
><P
>Perl 5 development centred around one mailing list, perl5-porters, aka
"p5p".  This mailing list was home to a core group of perl hackers and
an ever-changing procession of hopeful contributors, with Larry
presiding over the whole thing as a benevolent, but mostly uninvolved,
dictator.</P
><P
>The p5p list was very high volume, and many subscribers dropped off it
when they were unable to keep up with the discussions.  For those
without the courage to brave the deluge, a weekly summary was posted on
the web and available by email.  This provided links to threads or
specific posts of significant interest, all of which were available via
a web archive.</P
><P
>As well as being high volume, p5p had a reputation for unfriendliness
and for being the home to some particularly heated flame wars.  Certain
personalities on the list were renowned for the frequency and vehemence
of their flames, and newcomers were often scared away by the
argumentative atmosphere or the cold welcome they received.</P
><P
>More recently, a system of "refereeing" has been introduced, in which a
small group of trusted regulars are charged with keeping the peace.  The
means at their disposal include out-of-band warnings to offenders and
moderation of posters who repeatedly ignore warnings.</P
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><H2
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><A
NAME="AEN57"
>Why change it?</A
></H2
><P
>A number of reasons were given for why the Perl development process
needed changing.  These included:</P
><P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>Reverse p5p's bad reputation</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Give everyone an opportunity to contribute -- not just
the old-timers and Unix users, but also the Windows contingent, the WWW
scripting crowd, and those who use Perl for purposes ranging from
astronomical data-crunching to mainframe applications development</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Record discussions and decisions for future reference,
so that late joiners could read a clear archive of what had gone before</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Apply a bit of real project management</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Foster the kind of working environment that doesn't
drive valuable people away</P
></LI
></UL
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><H2
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><A
NAME="AEN71"
>How did we make decisions about this?</A
></H2
><P
>Straight after the TPC 4.0 meeting and announcement, a mailing list
called perl6-bootstrap was set up, with the goal of determining what
shape the subsequent process and community should take.</P
><P
>Unfortuneately, the bootstrap phase was given only a couple of weeks to
make decisions, and the first week of that was largely wasted while
travelling TPC attendees returned home, recovered from their jetlag, and
caught up on their email backlogs.</P
><P
>The result was rushed decisions that upset some people.  However, most
of the people were upset because the decisions had been rushed, not
because they were necessarily bad.  Few suggestions were offered that
differed significantly from what we ended up with -- most differences
were in the naming of mailing lists and other such (relative) trivia.</P
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><H2
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><A
NAME="AEN76"
>The shape of Perl 6 development</A
></H2
><P
>Here's what the bootstrap list came up with:
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>Project manager: Nathan Torkington</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Working groups, lead by WG chairs</P
><P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>Language (Kirrily Robert)</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Internals (Dan Sugalski)</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Standard Library (Graeme Barr)</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Build (Jarkko Hietaniemi)</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>QA (Michael Schwern)</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Licensing (Bradley Kuhn)</P
></LI
></UL
><P
>Each working group has a mailing list, and may spawn sub-lists
(with chairs for each one) as required.</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Working groups to develop RFCs describing possible
changes to make in Perl 6.  Note that these are actually "Requests For
Comment", not fixed standards as IETF RFCs tend to be.</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Larry would create an overall design for Perl 6 based on
the best suggestions to come out of the RFC process.</P
></LI
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></P
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